insurance
CT insurers’ 2018 rate requests as much as 52% increase — public hearing, comment
As part of the health insurance rate review process, CT’s Insurance Department will hold a public hearing June 14th in Hartford on insurers’ double-digit rate requests for next year. In the morning, the hearing will address Anthem’s requests averaging 33.8% increases and affecting 35,000 policyholders. In the afternoon, the hearing will consider ConnectiCare’s average 17.5%…
Read MoreDifferent polls, different questions – but people are worried about health care
A new poll, Inform CT Consumer Confidence Survey, finds that almost two thirds of CT residents are worried about health insurance affordability, up 12% in the last year. A new Gallup poll found that Americans’ perceptions of the health care and drug industries are the lowest among all sectors except the federal government. That means…
Read MoreCT Insurers want enormous rate hikes in 2017
Insurers in CT have asked the Dept. of Insurance for permission to raise premiums significantly next year, both on the exchange, AccessHealthCT, and off. Insurers want to raise individual AccessHealthCT premiums on average by 26.8% (Anthem with 56,700 covered lives), 14.3% (ConnectiCare Benefits covering 47,597 lives) and 12.21% (HealthyCT with 16,274 covered lives). Those averages…
Read MoreCT insurance exchange premiums high, but growing slower than national and regional averages
A new analysis by the Urban Institute finds that insurance exchange premiums for the lowest-cost Silver plan in CT averaged 0.7% growth annually over the last two years. This is well below growth at the national and regional averages of 5.5% and 4.2% respectively. While they aren’t rising as quickly, CT premiums started out much…
Read MoreFebruary web quiz: costs on CT’s health insurance exchange
Test your knowledge about costs of plans and MLRs on CT’s health insurance exchange. Take the February CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read More22,166 CT residents sharing $1.8 million in ACA premium rebates
Over $469 million in 2014 insurance premium rebates will soon be going back to US consumers including 22,166 CT residents, according to CMS. CT rebates will average $177 per family. Since 2011, under the Affordable Care Act, insurers are required to spend at least 80% of individual and small group insurance premiums on medical care…
Read MoreAnthem, Aetna and CIGNA have 82.5% of CT health insurance enrollment
As always, this year’s managed care report card from CT’s Insurance Dept. is fascinating. Anthem has 44% of total enrollment. Anthem is seeking to buy CIGNA for $54 billion; together they have 64% of CT enrollment. Aetna has 18.5% of enrollment, ConnectiCare has 9.2%, and Oxford/United Health Care has 6.8%. Enrollment is very low…
Read MoreCT median insurance premiums often higher on exchange than off
According to an analysis by the US Government Accountability Office of health insurance premiums, CT consumers paid more on our exchange than off, for many plan choices both last year and this year. This is unusual among states; nationally the best deals are usually found on health insurance exchanges. Median monthly silver-level premiums for a…
Read MoreAdvocates’ guide to underservice recommendations
Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM) is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system by aligning incentives to build value. SIM has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and…
Read MoreGrowing percent of AccessHealth CT members are not using their coverage
A new survey by AccessHealth CT found that 36% of their customers had not used their health coverage, compared to 26% last year. One in four (28%) don’t have a primary care provider. Enrollment in qualified health plans is now 96, 966, down 13,129 from the open enrollment period earlier this year. The biggest reason…
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